The present invention relates generally to computer systems and more particularly to transmission of documents from a server to a client.
With the increasing popularity of the Internet, many people are trying to embellish web pages to include richer custom child window controls (xe2x80x9ccontrolsxe2x80x9d). A control is a predefined child window that carries out a specific kind of input or output. A control is typically given its own window class that defines a window procedure for the control and that identifies attributes for the control. One difficulty that is encountered with including controls on web pages relates to transmission time. In particular, transmitting a document from a server to a client when the document includes a control takes a great deal of time. Since many users typically act in a browsing mode where they wish to quickly jump from web page to web page, the substantial delay caused by the transmission of the control can be particularly frustrating.
The present invention eliminates the substantial delay caused by the immediate transmission of the control to a client. In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a method is practiced in a distributed system that has a server and a client. Per this method, a document that includes a child window control is provided at the server. A request to receive a copy of the document is received at the server from the client. The document is transferred to the client such that the child window control is not initially transferred. Instead, drawing commands are transferred to the client from the server to draw a dummy window that has a like appearance to the child window control. Subsequently, the child window control may be transferred from the server to the client after a non-negligible predetermined period of time. Preferably, the child window control is transferred in a fashion that is transparent to a user. The child window control may be received and processed by the client in a background mode of processing. This method is especially useful in transferring web pages as documents.